USC has a chance on Saturday to do more than just pick up a big win. It can take a real swing at changing the story that has defined the last 16 years of West Coast football.
That story has Oregon out in front and USC trying to catch up.
The Trojans need this one for the obvious reasons. A win over Oregon would keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive, preserve a path to the Big Ten Championship Game, help them reach a 10-win regular season and give their national recruiting pitch a major boost. But the bigger issue hanging over this matchup is simpler than any of that: USC needs to beat Oregon to start shaking off the Ducks’ hold on the West.
Since the end of the Pete Carroll era, USC has only hit its expected standard twice - the 2016 season that ended with a Rose Bowl win and the 2017 Pac-12 championship season. The 2022 team got close, but it fell short by losing both the Pac-12 title game and its New Year's Six bowl game. That was still a step forward after the Clay Helton era, but it wasn’t enough to count as a full return to form.
And that’s been the theme. Outside of Sam Darnold’s two transformative seasons, USC has mostly been stuck in place.
Oregon, meanwhile, has taken over as the West’s most consistently relevant program. Washington has had its own peaks, including the 2016 playoff run and the 2023 national runner-up season, but Oregon has been steadier than both USC and Washington since 2010.
The Ducks have reached multiple national championship games, won multiple BCS - now New Year's Six - bowls, made last season’s playoff semifinal and stacked up far more standout seasons than the Trojans or Huskies.
The names tell the story, too. Chip Kelly started the rise.
Marcus Mariota delivered his huge 2014 Heisman season. Mario Cristobal added a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 title.
Dan Lanning has pushed the program even further. Oregon has been on the national stage often enough that it feels normal now.
USC has only popped up there occasionally.
That’s the gap Saturday is trying to close.
USC gets Oregon at home in a regular-season game for the first time since 2019, and the timing makes this feel like a turning point opportunity. The question is right there in front of the Trojans: if not now, when? If USC is going to get back to being the kind of program it was under Carroll, it has to start by beating the team that has been standing in its way.
In Other News...
Oregon Now Has One More USC Threat To Worry About
As USC builds toward its matchup with Oregon on Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the quieter storylines around the Trojans is the possible return of defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart. Lincoln Riley offered an update on Stewarts status this week, and the early-read is encouraging for a player USC has not had available this season because of a foot injury.
Stewart is still working his way back, but the fact that he is progressing adds another layer to a game that already carries real weight for the Trojans. If USC can get him back in the mix soon, it would give the front a welcome boost at a time when Oregon already has enough to sort through in a high-profile Big Ten showdown. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Fast Start Faces Its First Real Test Against Oregon
Southern California has spent the early part of the season looking every bit like a team that can make noise in its new conference home, and now it gets a measuring-stick game with No. 20 Oregon coming to town for a Big Ten matchup. Jayden Maiava has been the engine for the Trojans, leading the conference in passing yards and touchdowns, while the rest of the roster has helped USC build the kind of balance that usually travels well into big games.
Oregon brings its own challenge, and then some. Dan Lannings team has already shown it can handle the road in Big Ten play, and the Ducks arrive with enough offensive punch and defensive structure to make this USCs most demanding test yet. For the Trojans, the larger question is not whether they have started fast, but whether that start can hold up when the opponent is ranked, disciplined and comfortable in the kind of game that tends to expose soft spots. [Read more 🡒]
USC Heads To Oregon With New Playmakers And Growing Concerns
USC is heading to Oregon coming off a Week 3 stretch that clarified a few things about the roster and raised a few more questions. On offense, King Miller and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt have started to look like real pieces for the Trojans, giving the unit some much-needed fresh production as the season starts to settle in.
Jayden Maiavas play has slipped, and Waymond Jordans role has shrunk at the same time, leaving USC to sort out what the attack is supposed to look like in a tougher environment. The defense has its own issues to clean up, too, with the run front and the secondary both showing the kind of inconsistency that could become a problem quickly on the road in Eugene. [Read more 🡒]